World leaders flock to visit Fidel Castro during regional summit

In this photo released by Cubadebate on its website, Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff visits with Cuba's former President Fidel Castro in Havana, Cuba, in Havana, Cuba, Monday, Jan. 27, 2014. Rousseff is in Havana to attend the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States summit. (AP Photo/Cubadebate, Alex Castro)

Fidel Castro has lived mostly out of the public eye since a near-fatal illness in 2006 forced his retirement after nearly five decades at the helm of Cuba.

This week he had his busiest social calendar in years as nearly a dozen world leaders attending a regional summit in Havana stopped in to pay their respects to — and have their picture taken with — the man considered the godfather of the Latin American left.

Photos of the encounters taken by Castro's photographer son Alex show a gray-bearded, elderly man, seemingly alert and animated. The conversations reportedly ranged from history and world current affairs to remembrances of Castro's late friend Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. (AP)